Lissenung Island life

The main house, or “haus win”, offers comfortable chairs on a sandy floor and it is here where cold drinks and delicious meals await you. Fresh seafood such as fish, crabs and lobster (crayfish) feature high on a menu where set meals are served, rather than a la carte meals. Special dietary requirements can be catered for on request. Please advise us of those as early as possible as food supplies can be a little limited at times.

Many of the ingredients used in our kitchen come from the local market in Kavieng or are bought from locals that come direct to the island or meet our boat at dive sites. We buy fresh fruit such as pineapple, bananas, star fruit as well as all of our seafood from these people. Some vegetables and fruit are even grown in our own small veggie garden on the island. But wherever the food comes from, you can’t get it fresher and more organic than this!

Beer and Wine are available at the resort, but feel free to bring along your own alcoholic beverages. Especially spirits are often unavailable in PNG, and even when they are, they are extremely expensive. We have plenty of ice and mixer drinks such as coke, tonic water etc.

All buildings are built in the traditional style, with thatched roofs and walls made from woven bamboo. They blend in with their surroundings and are very eco-friendly. The local building materials are surprisingly strong and withstand even the strongest rainstorms.Local artefacts complete the picture and give the buildings that great PNG atmosphere. Just about every carving you see here is for sale, most of them being endemic to New Ireland.

Lissenung Island Resort prides itself on supporting the local communities. We purchase the vast majority of our produce for meals at the local markets or from the locals directly. Almost daily, fishermen and other neighbours paddle over in their dugout canoes to sell us their wares. This ensures that the seafood and fruits are as fresh as possible. We also grow some veggies ourselves, but on a small sand island, the choices are a little limited.

They also pay reef fees to various communities, which goes towards the upkeep of communal facilities such as schools, aid posts, building supplies etc.

All the staff live on Enuk Island, which is the closest island to Lissenung and “our” community. A visit can be organised to have a look at the school and for a stroll through the village. It’s only a 5-minute boat ride away and the whole trip usually takes approx. 1.5 hours. A small fee of PGK 35.00 per person is charged and goes toward the upkeep of the school, which doesn’t get much government funding. School books, tables, chairs and other material is purchased with this money. Feel free to bring along exercise books, pencils, cheap tennis balls and swimming goggles. These things are always a great hit with the kids!​

One of the most important ingredients at any dive resort is the dive staff, so please let us introduce the people of Lissenung Island Resort to you:

Dietmar Amon is the owner and director of Lissenung Island Resort. He is one of the most experienced and best dive guides in PNG. What he can’t find probably doesn’t exist. He is a PADI Staff Instructor and learned to dive in the freezing cold lakes of Austria. In 1996, he had enough of the cold and immigrated to PNG. Dietmar speaks English, German and Pidgin.

Ange Amon, a PADI and NAUI Instructor, helps Dietmar run the resort. Prior to coming to Lissenung Island, she has been working as an Instructor in Cairns, Australia for more than 11 years. Ange speaks ‘Australian’, German, Dutch and Pidgin.